INVITATION:
Bistro Bohem, in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic, will screen the Oscar-winning film Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky) by acclaimed director Jiří Menzel on February 19, at 7 pm. The film is part of a year-long Menzel Retrospective. Enjoy delicious Czech cuisine while watching Czech films.
 Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky) 1966, 93 min., Czech with English subtitles
In this coming of age story, a young man working at a train station in
German-occupied Czechoslovakia during WWII, develops a crush on a young
conductor. He receives some advice from the experienced train
dispatcher, who takes him under his wing to explain the art of
lovemaking. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language
Film (1968).
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About Jiří Menzel:
Jiří Menzel is an award-winning director, screenwriter, actor, and
theater director. He studied filmmaking at the famous Czech National
Film Academy, FAMU, in Prague. Like Forman, he was one of the leaders of
the Czech New Wave. Most notably, Menzel won an Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film for his first feature-length film Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky,
1967). With the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces in
1968, and the period of so-called ‘normalization’ that followed, he was
one of the first directors to be barred from filmmaking. Menzel’s
controversial film Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, 1969)
was banned by the government, but released twenty years later, in 1990,
after the collapse of the communist regime. The film won the Golden
Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1986, his film My Sweet Little Village (Vesničko má středisková, 1985) was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film (1987). Other renowned works include Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto, 1968), Cutting It Short (Postřižiny, 1981) and most recently I Serve the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále,
2006). Menzel is a member of the Czech Film and Television Academy, the
European Film Academy and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. He has received many prestigious awards, among them the French
order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and the Akira Kurosawa Prize
for a lifetime’s achievement at the San Francisco Film Festival.
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About the Czech New Wave:
The Czech New Wave was an artistic movement of the 1960s, hailed as the “golden era” in Czechoslovakia's cinematic history boasting some of the most attractive films produced in Europe. The core of the New Wave was comprised of recent graduates of the Film and Television Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, who made their debuts in or around 1963 and continued to produce internationally acclaimed work throughout most of the decade. Prominent Czech directors include Miloš Forman, who directed Black Peter (Černý Petr, 1963), Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965) and The Firemen's Ball (Hoří, má panenko, 1967); Věra Chytilová who is best known for her film Daisies; and Jiří Menzel, whose film Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, 1966) won an Academy Award for best foreign language film.
The Czech New Wave was an artistic movement of the 1960s, hailed as the “golden era” in Czechoslovakia's cinematic history boasting some of the most attractive films produced in Europe. The core of the New Wave was comprised of recent graduates of the Film and Television Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, who made their debuts in or around 1963 and continued to produce internationally acclaimed work throughout most of the decade. Prominent Czech directors include Miloš Forman, who directed Black Peter (Černý Petr, 1963), Loves of a Blonde (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965) and The Firemen's Ball (Hoří, má panenko, 1967); Věra Chytilová who is best known for her film Daisies; and Jiří Menzel, whose film Closely Watched Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, 1966) won an Academy Award for best foreign language film.
February 21, 7 pmThe Sun in a Net | Slnko v sieti
February 28, 7 pm The Shop on Main Street | Obchod na korze
March 21, 7 pm 
March 28, 7 pm 
In French with English subtitles
French intertitles translated live
In French with English subtitles
In French with English subtitles
In French with English subtitles
